Did Anyone in the Newsroom Really Get Digital Nomadism?
A tour through letters to the editor shows the same clichés on Wi-Fi, heat, and lattes. But digital nomadism isn’t the problem—it’s the experiment that’s teaching us how to live and work differently.
Recently we did a little tour through the letters pages of mainstream newspapers. The Guardian, for example, ran a whole spread of voices on “the good, the bad and the ugly of life as a digital nomad.” The results? A mash-up of valid points, old clichés, and—let’s be honest—some serious misunderstanding of what this lifestyle is actually about.
Let’s start with the obvious: digital nomadism is not the problem. It’s not the villain behind rising rents in Kuala Lumpur, nor the reason Wi-Fi sometimes crashes, nor the cause of tropical heat. These things existed long before we started carrying MacBooks across borders. As Ivan from Trento reminded us, Horace nailed it centuries ago: “They change their sky, not their soul, who rush across the sea.” Translation: you can move countries, but you still bring your baggage. That’s not a bug of nomadism—it’s the human condition.
What people often miss is that nomadism is not about recreating the exact same office life in Bali or Lisbon. It’s about choice. It’s about designing work around life, not the other way around. Sara, writing from London, captured it well: it isn’t forever, it isn’t for everyone, but when it works, it’s deeply rewarding. That’s the essence: flexibility, not dogma.
Abigail’s point from Kuala Lumpur is also important: yes, affordability looks different depending on which currency your paycheck lands in. But that’s not an argument against nomadism—it’s an argument for more thoughtful, responsible ways of living and spending abroad. Digital nomads aren’t tourists on permanent holiday; they’re part of the global workforce. And that workforce needs to learn how to integrate without displacing.
And then there’s David from Scotland, who said it best: “Happiness is a state of mind, not a state of place.” True. But moving, exploring, and reimagining your routines can definitely help trigger that state of mind. Sometimes happiness needs a little geography.
So, after this quick tour of readers’ letters, one question remains: do editors and journalists really understand what digital nomadism is? Or are they still stuck in a mix of stereotypes—sun loungers, avocado toast, rooftop pools? Nomadism is bigger than that. It’s not an escape from work, but a redesign of it. Not a lifestyle fad, but a real experiment in how humans live, move, and connect in the 21st century.
Until the media catches up, we’ll keep writing our own letters from the road.